another year older...

yes-tim is another year closer to retirement...his b-day was yesterday (saturday). it was a typical crazy dewalt weekend. tam had to work both days. fred came down on saturday. kids had "stuff" all weekend long. church and soccer game on sunday.

we had his b-day dinner at wegmans. (something for everyone).

nothing new to report as far as the esophagus is concerned. he did get his stitches out of his ear and that is healing up nicely.

should be a relatively quiet week...we will update if anything changes.

sorry about the huge gap in blog updates...kinda nutty around here.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

wanted to try a picture...or two.

this first one is NOT megans homecoming outfit!!! this was my 17 year old on HANNA SPIRIT day last friday. they had a whole week of different themes each day...they had fun.





the second one is the really scary one...these are the twins on HOMECOMING night. the first "boy" with kelsey was one of the imports from the gettysburg area...they met at church camp and thought it would be fun to hang out. the next "boy" appears to be fitting into the "significant other" category with ashley...his name is jake. they had a good time but i think that they found out "formal" is not all it is cracked up to be. i think they would have preferred hanging out and shooting pool and eating pizza.


they are growing up fast...

nothing new on the home front...i am heading to berwick to take fred out for breakfast. his b-day is tomorrow. then i am going to hang with my mom for the afternoon. have a great day.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

tuesday morning...

well, we survived the weekend.

the twins did the homecoming thing and the eldest decided she would have more fun hanging at wal-mart with friends...

we somehow managed to KILL our microwave yesterday...this should be a challenge. meg has already had to run over to the neighbors to heat something up. i am not real sure i know how to cook a whole meal without one...but i think they have books available.

the ENDOSCOPY guy called and wants to pursue other avenues to find out why tim has such burning in his esophagus. they made a minor medication change which they told us probably won't work, but they had to try. after that i guess we are looking into another scope...going in behind the webbing and biopsy deeper. that will probably be in about two weeks.

he gets the stitches out of his ear on thursday. we haven't heard any more about that follow-up yet.

he is having good days for the most part...not feeling great but able to function. it seems the more he gets moving the better he feels (until he stops). he evening have been rather rough.

well...gotta get going. i will try to upload some homecoming pictures in the next couple of days. i tried today but the kids were on their sides...i guess meg was holding the camera sideways when she took the pictures...now i have to figure out how to turn them around for the blog. maybe they have a book for that too.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

huge weekend...

as you all know we now have three teenagers all in the high school...and all girls...and this weekend is HOMECOMING weekend. we are talking some major hair care products here!!! there are days that i think our girls shed more than a pet would...we have hair from one end of the house to the other. the one with straight hair wants it curled and the one with curly hair wants hers straight and the other one has opted out of the event but seems amused with all the festivities.

they walk around the house with different dresses and different shoes and different hair styles...talking about boys...if this cancer doesn't kill tim, having three teenage daughters just might!!! (pray for him this weekend) today is "all out" hanna spirit day followed by the football game tonight (that means you should wear red tonight lu ann) and the dance tomorrow night. we hear that some girls are "importing" boys in from gettysburg...very interesting. (i guess the fact they met at a church camp is supposed to make us feel better about this??)

should be an interesting weekend.

tim is still not really feeling all that great. he has been having some light-headed spells and his stomach has been messed up. his ear still hurts. i have a headache and sore throat and am starting to feel kinda yuk...should be an interesting weekend.

we will update when we can. have a great weekend. thanks for all your love and support. a call or a card or a blog comment...they all help. we have NEVER felt alone through this whole process. thank you.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

did you ever...

...get what you thought was "good" news in a way that you have no idea if it was really "good" in the first place?? we had a very frustrating doctors appt yesterday...we are still processing it ourselves so i will try to be as clear as i can.

good news: the endoscopy biopsies came back negative
doctors comments: very inconclusive as to why you are the way you are...they should do an internal ultrasound of the esophagus and get more deeper biopsies from behind the webbing.

good news: the ear is all stitched up and healing nice
doctors comments: many lymphoma patients get other types of cancer that can spread-we should probably discuss radiation therapy because of it being so close to lymph glands.

good news: all the test are over we can get off the lovenox shots and back on the coumadin
doctors comments: probably having more tests-stay on the lovenox.

this list is by no means a complete list of the frustration we felt yesterday but it is just to give you an idea why the biopsy results came back negative but we are not jumping for joy (yet).

we do not see the oncologist for another three weeks (that might be the best news we got)...in the interim we are to follow-up with the dermatologist and the GI guy after he talks to them.

i don't like feeling the way we do today...i know we should learn to relax and remember that GOD is in control and take each little positive thing we get and hang on to it...but it was really hard this time. it was like tim went through all that "stuff" and we are still no farther ahead than we were before.

but...the sun is going to come up again today and that is a good thing. the kids are running around getting ready for "mix-match" day...what a riot!!! i hope they get some pictures. this is "spirit" week at the high school and the kids are having a blast. i am getting ready to leave for work and tim is working today too. life really is good...

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

ear update...

the surgery went well...the cancer went deep instead of wide so they were able to put 3 stitches on the inside and 6 stitches on the outside and NO SKIN GRAFT was needed. he has one wicked sore ear but in a day or so that should improve.

on wednesday we go see the oncologist and try to sort out this last couple of weeks. it is doubtful that we will have any biopsy reports back yet, but we have so many "other" things we can talk about.

thanks for all megans b-day wishes...she had a very crazy day. they tied their last field hockey game. (went into overtime but still finished in a tie). they got home around 9:30pm. makes for a very long day...now they shower and eat and start on the homework...oh to be young again. if i had to sit down after a day like that and start algebra and US history it would not be pretty.

will update when we can.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

happy b-day megan

today is meg's 17th b-day.

ear surgery this morning and field hockey in gettysburg tonight.

thanks for checking in...gotta run.

tim and tammy

friday night update...

...well for starters did you know that if you are not feeling up for going to a friday night football game you can always watch one on television>>>things must be pretty good because we are watching some high school football game: gateway vs penn hills (whoever they are).

the endoscopy is over and tim is feeling a little sore but with a little morphine and a little football and a couch i think he will be fine.

the highlight of the scope were the words "no obvious lymphoma" present. we liked that.

the confusing part of the scope were the words "multiple biopsies" and "multiple web" and "erythema" and my favorite one "pemphigus-like" (?).

so... we were pleased with the obvious and will have to wait and see about the rest. the doctor said that tim should have his esophagus stretched or dialated because of all the "web" but that he couldn't do it until they get the results of the biopsies back. apparently some conditions tend to rupture easily so they will have to wait.

there were certainly some esophageal issues found that need to be dealt with but i can't tell you any more about treatment now than i could last week. you all know the routine by now...in about 7-10 days we should know more. but all in all i think we will all sleep better tonight now that the scope is over.

i work this weekend. tim is in charge. field hockey make-up on saturday afternoon (4pm) and soccer game on sunday afternoon (1pm). megan turns 17 on monday...can you believe it...her parents seem so young to have a kid that age!! we have our last field hockey game of the season in gettysburg that night.

thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

not one of our better days...

ever get the feeling that NOTHING seems to be going in your favor anymore...and the next person who asks what else could possibly go wrong might just get smacked.

today was a crappy day. (although the weather was awesome)

scope tomorrow afternoon.

pray for us. i think our nerves are shot and our patience is thinning.

waiting is not our strongest best quality.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

nothing new today...

hi ho hi ho it off to work we all go...

i have my early shift...he prefers the later shift these days. then a field hockey game at lower dauphin (they are on a 45 game winning streak-could be a long night).

we will update when we hear something.

have a wonderful day.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

dermatology update...

the biopsy of tims ear (which has already given us much grief...) has come back positive for squamous cell skin cancer. it was no big surprise on our part but rather an inconvenience. on monday (while he is still OFF his blood thinner) they are going to do MOHS surgery. i guess they keep taking portions of the area until it all comes back negative for cancer cells. then they see what damage they have caused and start to "re-build" the ear. they will use skin from either behind his ear or his collar bone area to re-construct the area they removed. the whole process can take in excess of three hours depending how large of an area they need to remove (occasionally they need more than one appt).

my biggest concern is not the skin cancer or the skin grafts but rather the risk of infection. i think it is going to be a long couple of weeks.

his scope is still scheduled for friday afternoon. we are not expecting to hear back from that biopsy for about a week but hopefully they can let us know what the pictures are leading towards. it must be a real "mess" down there.

thats all the updates for today...have a great day.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

quiet weekend...

well, quiet in the "medical" sense...the kids are off for a three day weekend and that is not so quiet.

tim had a good weekend...the ear is healing up nicely. his counts are good. we started him on his lovenox (heparin) shots to get him through his endoscopy on friday. i haven't seen any improvement in his throat or esophagus but i don't think it got any worse. we are just tired of the waiting all the time...your mind starts to play tricks on you after awhile.

kids have field hockey games monday, wednesday, friday, saturday, and next monday.
kids have soccer practice on tuesday and thursday.
kids have soccer game on sunday afternoon.
tim has scope on friday afternoon.
in addition to work and school and a dentist appt and a doctors appt...

should be a relatively quiet week.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

still quiet...

this is a good thing.

i am off to work
tim is off to work
kids are off to school
field hockey games after school

now this is what i call back to "semi-normal". this is a good thing.

ash is improving
tims levels are coming down

(he does have his endoscopy scheduled for next friday if his blood thinner issues can resolve by then)

thanks for praying
thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

we have gone a whole...

24 hours without visiting an ER...things are good!!!

i am getting ready to leave for work.

ashley is improving a little each day but still has a long way to go before she is playing soccer again...she is going to try to go to school today.

tim is dealing with blood thinner issues...getting daily lab work done and being VERY careful around sharp objects. the best we can figure the anti-yeast medication and the coumadin didn't mix very well. tims blood thinning levels were 3 times what they were supposed to be...which means that he will not stop bleeding once he starts. a couple more days of being off the medications and things should come back to a decent safe level.

wish i could update more, but i have to get to work but i wanted to let everyone know that megs car passed inspection. YEAH!!

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

at 2am...

...there is nothing like the smell of burning flesh.

yes, the dewalts have made yet another trip to the hershey medical center emergency room. this time it was tim in the spotlight.

this morning we saw oncology followed by dermatology followed by radiology followed by a trip back to dermatology then home. while at derm they took a biopsy of a very suspicious area on tims ear...they patched him up an off we went.

as the day and evening progressed the ear started bleeding worse (which we thought was due to an elevated protime from his blood thinner). at 5pm his co-workers encouraged him to go get it checked. at 9pm his wife encouraged him to go get it checked. at 1am after soaking through numerous towels and sweatshirt and pillow he decided he should go get it checked.

so off to hershey we went...turns out that not only is his blood thinner an issue but they also NICKED an ARTERY during the procedure. so it is now 5am and we are just getting home and he seems to be fixed for now...we have to follow up with derm in the morning and call our oncologist because his coumadin (blood thinner) levels are too high also.

just another day in the life of the dewalts.

i will have more updates on tims appt a bit later on...right now i am going to try to catch a wink or two.

ashley made an attempt at school today but was back home by 9am...she is really stiff and sore plus has a pretty bad headache. i am not sure what she will do today...

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy